22 College Green, Belfast

22 College Green is a three-storey red-brick asymmetrical terraced house built in 1876, facing south on College Green, north-east of the main quadrangle at Queen's University, Belfast. It is a relatively plain example of Victorian domestic architecture, though it has retained its modest decorative façade, including plaster door and window surrounds. The house forms part of a longer Victorian terrace running from No. 2 to No. 26 College Green inclusive, which overlooks the Theological College of the Presbyterian Church in the Queen's Conservation Area. Its significance lies primarily in its group value with the adjoining No. 18 and No. 20 College Green, and in the integrity of the overall composition of College Green, which is among the most striking terraces in the conservation area.

ROOF AND MATERIALS

The roof is natural slate, duo-pitched, with black clay ridge tiles. One rectangular red-brick chimney, centred on the ridge, has corbelled brick copings and several octagonal yellow clay pots; it is shared with No. 20. The single-storey canted bay has a leaded roof. Rainwater goods are cast metal replacements: ogee guttering to the south, half-round guttering to the north, and circular rainwater pipes. The south (principal) elevation is built in red brick laid in Flemish bond with painted masonry dressings. The north (rear) elevation, largely rebuilt in salvaged red brick, is laid in English Garden Wall bond. Windows are single-glazed timber-framed sliding sashes: one-over-one panes to the south elevation and two-over-two panes to the north, the latter being replacements.

SOUTH ELEVATION

The south elevation is the principal façade. It is asymmetrical, with the entrance to the right (east) and a single-storey canted bay to the left at ground-floor level. There are two segmental-arched windows at both first- and second-floor levels, diminishing in height as they rise. The entire ground floor is rendered in smooth plaster and painted, terminating in a square-edged string course running between the first-floor cills. A deep plinth to the ground floor has a moulded top and is painted in a contrasting colour.

The entrance is set within a projecting door case with stop-chamfered head and jamb reveals. The door itself is a replacement timber-framed four-panelled design with a rounded central bead to resemble double doors, and a stained and leaded glass overlight. A cornice hood above the door is embellished with waterleaf-and-dart moulding, though this detail is partially obscured by several layers of paint. Stop-chamfered head and jamb reveals are also applied to all other ground-floor openings and to the outer edge of the door case.

The first-floor windows have moulded surrounds topped by ornamental decoration. The second-floor windows share the same surround design, with corbel brackets below projecting cills. Heavy overhanging eaves are supported on corbelled yellow brick specials alternating with three courses of angled yellow brick.

NORTH ELEVATION

The rear elevation faces north and was entirely rebuilt following the removal of the original return around 2004. At ground-floor level there is a modern glazed door to the left and a window to the right. The first and second floors each have two windows, diminishing in height and aligned with the ground-floor openings. Openings have soldier-coursed headers on galvanised steel lintels, and single-course corbelled brick eaves in header bond. Stone cills are painted.

ALTERATIONS

The original return was removed around 2004 as part of a major renovation by Queen's University, at which time two-storey gabled extensions were added. The interior of No. 22 was integrated with those of its neighbours, Nos. 12–14, 20, and 24, as part of works covering Nos. 12–24 (No. 16 is absent from the sequence). This internal reconfiguration and the loss of the original returns diminish the historic character of the building to some extent.

SETTING AND BOUNDARIES

No. 22 is set midway along College Green, which runs between Botanic Avenue to the west and Rugby Road to the east. A concrete dwarf wall and modern metal railings line the southern boundary, matching the treatment at adjacent properties. The small front garden is surfaced in reconstituted stone pavers, ramped alongside the bay window to connect with No. 20, with two steps leading up to the front entrance at No. 22.

To the rear, the yard is enclosed by a replacement red-brick wall with a brick-on-edge coping to match the gabled extensions at adjoining properties. The wall contains flush timber double doors opening onto College Green Mews. Behind this wall, a courtyard to the rear of No. 22 provides shared amenity space for Nos. 20–24. It comprises ramped paths to the ground-floor entrance, with red-brick retaining walls topped by modern metal handrails and uprights in a painted finish.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

College Green was laid out in 1866 on what was then the semi-rural "Plains" of Malone, the land east of the recently established Queen's College (completed 1849) and around the Union Theological College (completed 1853). The foundation of Queen's College prompted several decades of development in the area, with regularly planned streets filled mainly with High Victorian terraced housing for the professional and merchant classes moving southwards from the rapidly commercialising and industrialising centre of Belfast. The present Nos. 6–8 were the first to be built along the new thoroughfare in 1866, followed by Nos. 2–4 (College Green House, originally "Culfeightrin House", rebuilt around 1882) and Nos. 24–26 in 1870–71, then Nos. 10–12 and 20–22 in 1876, and Nos. 14–18 in 1878. The street was originally conceived as part of Fitzroy Avenue and was regarded as such for the first few decades of its existence; the name "College Green" was applied only to Culfeightrin House and Nos. 2–8 on the 1871–73 Ordnance Survey map.

No. 22 dates from 1876 and appears to have been built by the estate of the late Robert Corry, the Belfast timber merchant who had developed part of College Green in the mid-1860s and, previously, Upper and Lower Crescent in the 1840s and 1850s. The identity of the architect is uncertain. The first recorded occupant, named in the 1880 street directory, was David Keay (or Keary), described as "Manager of Marcus Ward & Co.'s printing department", who leased the property directly from the Corry estate. Keay appears to have died in the late 1890s, and the property passed to his widow, who in the 1901 census was occupying the house with two sons and two nurses; the building was noted in that census as a "first class" dwelling with ten rooms in use. The Keay family held the property until at least 1935. By 1943 it was recorded in the street directory as a nurses' home managed by a Miss Freckleton, and in 1964 a Samuel Freckleton is named as occupant. In the later 1960s the property was acquired by Queen's University and became offices for its Data Processing Department. In the late 1970s it was combined with Nos. 22–24 and became the offices of the Department of Social Studies. The building was listed in 1979. Following the major renovation of around 2004, it became part of Queen's University's School of Social Science, Education and Social Work (formerly the School of Life Long Learning).